A Spanish art historian has found evidence that suggests some Civil War jail cells were built like 3-D modern art paintings in order to torture prisoners.

The cells were built in 1938 for the republican forces fighting General Franco's Fascist Nationalist army, who eventually won power, historian Jose Milicua told the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Milicua told the paper he had found court papers from the 1939 trial of French anarchist Alphonse Laurencic, a republican, by a Franco-ist military court.

During the trial Laurencic revealed he was inspired by modern artists, such as surrealist Salvador Dali and Bauhaus artist Wassily Kandinsky, to create the torture cells, said Milicua.